Broken Spells
by wrath
Summary: A runaways fic. Following the destruction of The Pride, Nico takes a moment to reflect on the price she would pay to secure her own personal happiness.


Broken Spells

Wasn't that what they always said? The first step was always the hardest?

Standing there on the sand while the midnight-sun bleached the colours of the world around her and the swash licked at her boots, Nico didn't think so. It had become a little too easy to do that which had becomealmost second nature to the girl; sinking the sharp edge of her teeth into to her very own lip until blood was drawn and quietly utter the words that would bring the staff of one into this world.

None of the other runaways had noticed Nico quietly draw away from the group. No, Chase in all his seventeen-year-old glory had done a brilliant job of living up to his code-name and provide quite the distraction by telling Captain America just where the fuck he could get off after the leading Avenger had unveiled the likely future of the rag-tag band of teenagers. Who could blame him for blowing a gasket anyway? To have just saved the world from an imminent destruction it didn't even know it was about to face and left the people who you'd shared the majority of your life with (regardless of the fact that they were the costumed bad guys which had set the whole ghastly ball rolling in the first place by making a deal with proverbial devils) to face a certain, watery death was one thing. To be told by a guy dressed in the Star - Spangled Banner that the only compensation you were likely to get for yanking the world free from the ever-present jaws of peril was a bucket full of therapy to make sure you didn't turn out like dear mother, father and villainous co. while the legal system processed you and dumped you in a foster home was… well, a little numbing to say the least.

The good Captain had merely looked down on the scraggy boy before him pacing up and down with an expression that may as well have been chiselled out of granite as Chase spat about how unfair this all was and making no effort to skimp out on the vast dictionary of dirty language that his tongue could effortlessly leaf through. Nico could still hear him ranting away, but the rising and falling hiss of salty water on sand was doing a nice job of muffing it up. She could be alone with the kaleidoscope of thoughts swirling about in her mind for a moment.

Sure, their parents were bad people, but they weren't evil through and through. They'd sacrificed their one shot at paradise for children yet to be born and it was only thanks to them that those very same children were standing here right now, filling lungs that could have easily been as water-logged as theirs with air. Yes, she did hate them for what they'd become, but that didn't stop tonight's events from blowing a sizable chunk right through her… and there was something that made that wound yawn even wider, eating away at her inside out.

Alex.

No less than fifteen minutes ago, she'd watched the boy, their leader who'd brought them through thick and thin be reduced to nothing more than ash and naked, charred-black bone. Despite this, Nico knew in her heart of hearts that no other members of a team that had once been his would shed a singe, saline tear when re-living the memories he haunted.

Why? It wasn't that they were heartless or cruel or creatures void of empathy. No, they were good kids, each and every one of them and the fact that the world wasn't coming to a crashing end here and now was a testament to that very truth. No, it was merely that Alex had been the only rotten apple among them who'd clung stubbornly to the tree. He'd lied to them. He'd used them. He'd betrayed them. From the very beginning, he'd been the one pulling the strings and each and every one of them had danced along, going through the motions that had already been laid out for them by the Wilders' boy.

So, why was it that she was the only one who was quietly weeping by herself? To answer that, one final thing would have to be added to his list of crimes; he'd taken her heart and tainted it with oh so bitter a toxin. Oh yes, she'd walked right into that particular trap which Alex had set up just for her, and fallen for the boy who always seemed so in control and collected. However, that illusion had all but crumbled the moment he turned on her, saying that the world was screwed anyways but he and she... they could make the only difference a couple of kids like them could by bringing it to a swift end. There was no way in hell that Nico could do that but that plain fact didn't stop a small fraction of her brain silently considering it for just a moment… and that was the part that really had scared her. Godamnit, why oh why did his loyalties have to lie so firmly with his parents? What part of his mind had managed to convince the rest of it that they were heroes and deserved to be worshipped as such?

If…If only he hadn't been there for them. Well they weren't here now; the obstacle that had fatally clouded his judgment was dead and buried, but then, so was he. That just brought everything crashing back to square one…

… But that could all easily be changed. Yes, just the right word could bring him back and this time she could have all to herself now that Mister and Misses Wilder were gone and without them he could so easily become the guy she'd fallen in love with what felt like a dusty, stretching millennium ago. Her personal voice of reason tutted away at the back of her mind, clicking with thick scorn as she bit her lip and brought forth the staff, its sleek form sluggishly erupting from the black folds of her top. That internal counselor muttered something along the lines of how this was a stupid, stupid thing to do and absolutely no good was going to come from it, but it was only when Nico had the obsidian shaft nestled tightly in her hand that its words truly began to slot into place and get the cogs within the girl's mind turning. The word that would hopefully weave a spell caught in her throat like some choking bone and silently fluttered there. What if it did work? Never mind the sickening mass ethical questions involved, could Alex really change or would he just be bent on revenge on learning the fate that had befallen The Pride and his parents? Worse than that, would, no, _could_ the others possibly even begin to forgive him for his manipulative treason? None of them shared even a fraction of the emotions she felt for him and, despite her faith in the over-sized magic wand that she was currently leaning on, leaving it to sink down a little into the sand under-foot as she wrangled with her thoughts, Nico was sure that fixing that particular situation was far beyond its powers.

Screw it. She'd already made one sacrifice tonight and that in itself had almost been too much to bear. The unspoken word un-lodged itself from her throat and flew freely from her mouth , setting the salt ridden air rippling.

"Revive."

For a second, the metal loop perched atop the staff burnt red as if the thick circle had been filled with some unholy heat, and then, as soon as it had come, the warm aura radiating from the very core of the ancient staff faded back into cold nothingness. Nico's breath caught. What now? The seconds rolled by, counted by the rolling waves lapping softly at the gritty sand but nothing changed. She was still here on the beach and she was still alone. Her fingers adorned with black-painted nails clenched the staff that little bit tighter, silently willing it to reveal whatever it was that it was keeping to itself… but it was going to leave that to her to work out. It had now been a minute since she'd uttered the word and finally her pleading gaze dropped from the staff as cold realisation spread through her.

It hadn't worked.

"Nico? Are you ok?" The girl didn't need to turn to know that the voice that had intruded on the silence belonged to Karolina, so she didn't. "Nico," the voice behind her tried once more. "We've got to go… The police have just got here and we really don't have a choice thanks to Captain America showing up." There was a pause, and in it the girl kept leaning on the staff and her heavy eyes fixed on some far out point of the brine filled sea, at least until Karolina shattered the silence once more. "I'm sorry."

"Why?" For the first time since the blonde extra-terrestrial had slipped up behind her, Nico turned to her. "It's not like you're the one who shot him up in flames."

"No," Karolina held her gaze with the darkly dressed girl over the few meters of sand that separated them. "But I'd be lying if I said I hadn't wanted to after everything he did to all of us… and to you."

"Hm, after tonight, I don't think I could blame any of you guys for thinking that…"

Karolina opened her mouth, but whatever it was she was going to come out with remained unsaid and the two were left hanging in silence.

"_Are _you going to be alright?" she finally asked. Nico had been hoping to whatever powers that be that her friend was going to drop that question after she'd answered it with nothing more than stony silence the first time Karolina had popped it. After all, how the hell could you explain to someone that your heart currently felt as though it had been reduced to nothing more than shards of glass that were worming their vicious way through you thanks to a guy who'd happily written off everyone else on the face of the earth? Even she couldn't understand it.

"You said we have to go with them?"

"Them… you mean the cops?" Karolina looked up at, confusion tugging at her face at the sudden jump in topic of conversation. "Well, yeah… it's that or go toe to toe with The Avengers."

"Well then, let's get out of here. I don't think we're up for that right now… not after all this."

Nico's grip on the Staff of One loosened a little as she followed the girl to the point where the sand met the grass and a squad of cop cars were waiting, their swirling lights momentarily setting the scenery blazing as they rotated round and round. Maybe it was for the best that the spell hadn't worked after all.

-Fin

A/N: well, after a long hiatus from fan fiction. Net, this is my first shot at a runaways fic and I hoped it worked. Having read issue 2 of the 'True Believers' digest, I though it would be fun to go back and explore Nico's apparently failed attempt to raise Alex from the dead. Apologies for any spelling errors and thank you for taking the time to read my waffling. Any C&C would be more than welcomed.

Edit

God, my ability to spot my own errors died a death. Many, MANY thanks to Bethan who was kind enough to play beta and fix this up for me. Hopefully, all the spellings should have been stamped out along with my ability to write akward sentences. Again, thanks be to her.


End file.
